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The Wizard Of Oz (Chadwick Pictures Film)
The Wizard Of Oz is a 1925 American silent film directed by Larry Semon, who also appears in a lead role — that of the scarecrow. It also features Oliver Hardy as the tin woodman. L. Frank Baum's son, Frank Joslyn Baum is top-billed with the writing of the script, although his actual contribution to the screenplay is doubted by Baum scholar Michael Patrick Hearn, he was certainly involved in the business angle of the production. Plot A toymaker reads L. Frank Baum's book to his granddaughter. The land of Oz is ruled by the prime minister, Kruel, aided by his ambassador, Wikked, Lady Vishuss, and the wizard, a "medicine-show hokum hustler". When the discontented people, led by prince Kynd, demand the return of the princess, who disappeared while a baby many years before, so she can be crowned their rightful ruler, Kruel has the wizard distract them with a parlor trick: making a female impersonator appear out of a seemingly empty basket. Kruel sends Wikked on a mission. Meanwhile, in Kansas, Dorothy Gale lives on a farm with her relatives. While Aunt Em is a kind and caring woman, Uncle Henry is an obese man with a short temper who shows little love for his niece and also abuses his farm hands: Snowball and Hardy's and Semon's unnamed characters. The latter two are both in love with Dorothy, who favors Semon's character. Aunt Em reveals to Dorothy that she was placed on their doorstep as a baby, along with an envelope and instructions that it be opened only when she turned 18. On her 18th birthday however, Wikked and his minions come to the farm and demand the envelope. When Uncle Henry refuses to hand it over, Wikked suborns Hardy's character by promising him wealth and Dorothy. Wikked then has Dorothy tied to a rope and raised high up a tower, while his men start a fire underneath the rope. Hardy's character finds the note, but Semon's character takes it and saves Dorothy, only to have Wikked and his men capture them all at gunpoint. Then a tornado suddenly strikes as Dorothy, the two rivals for her affections, and Snowball take shelter in a shed. It is carried aloft and lands in Oz, where Dorothy finally reads the contents of the envelope, it declares that she is princess Dorothea who is the rightful ruler of Oz. Thwarted, Kruel blames the farm hands for kidnapping her and orders the wizard to transform them into something else, such as monkeys, which he is of course unable to do. Chased by Kruel's soldiers, Semon's character disguises himself as a scarecrow, while Hardy's improvises a costume from the pile of tin in which he is hiding, but they are still eventually taken captive. During their trial, the tin man accuses his fellow farm hands of kidnapping Dorothy, while Kynd has the scarecrow and Snowball put in the dungeon. Kruel makes the tin man the knight of the garter and Wikked suggests he retain his power by marrying Dorothy, as the wizard helps the two prisoners escape by giving Snowball a lion costume which he uses to scare away the guards. Though the scarecrow manages to reach Dorothy to warn her against Kruel, he is chased back down into the dungeon by the tin man, and ends up getting trapped inside a lion cage with real lions for a while, but he and Snowball finally escape. When Kynd finds Kruel trying to force Dorothy to marry him, they engage in a sword fight. When Kruel's henchmen intervene and help disarm Kynd, the scarecrow saves Dorothy and Kynd. Defeated, Kruel claims that he took Dorothy to Kansas in order to protect her from court factions out to harm her, but she orders that he be taken away. The scarecrow is heartbroken to discover that Dorothy has fallen for prince Kynd, as he then flees up a tower from the tin man, who tries to blast him with a cannon. Snowball flies a biplane overhead and the scarecrow manages to grab a rope ladder dangling underneath it, however the ladder breaks and he falls. The scene shifts abruptly back to the little girl who had fallen asleep as she wakes up and leaves. The grandfather reads from the book that Dorothy marries prince Kynd and they live happily ever after. Cast of characters Dorothy Dwan as Dorothy Gale Larry Semon as a farmhand/the scarecrow Oliver Hardy as another farmhand/the tin man Spencer Bell as Snowball/the cowardly lion Charles Murray as the wizard Bryant Washburn as Prince Kynd Josef Swickard as Prime Minister Kruel Mary Carr as Aunt Em Frank Alexander as Uncle Henry Virginia Pearson as Lady Vishuss Otto Lederer as Ambassador Wikked Frederick Ko Vert as the phantom of the basket Trivia The film departs radically from the novel upon which it is based, introducing new characters and exploits along with a completely different plot in a world that is only barely recognizable as the land of Oz from the books.Category:The Wizard Of Oz Category:Movies